You know how every Sunday I read the obituaries and like to notice things about the person, or the family names and how generationally they change or the latest euphemism for "Dead"?
Well, yesterday I did all that PLUS!
Plus, I also noticed there were a ton more "in lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to xyz charity" than usual. Sometimes that is the only clue as to cause of death. If they are asking for donations to leukemia, cancer or heart association then that is a safe guess as to what they have been dealing with.
Here's a sampling of what people thought would be better ways to spend your money than on flowers:
Increase International (religious charity started by the deceased)
Shriner Hospital fund
St. Vincent de Paul
Deceased person's church
Hungry Kids International
The hospice program the family used
American Heart Association
family requested potted plants only
local children's hospital or family church
private church school, museum and hospice
Southwest College of Naturpathic Medicine
donations to family church or plant a nice tree in her name
National WWII Museum in New Orleans
Local humane society
another one for the Shriner Children hospital
Polish Heritage Society in Nebraska
Juvenile Diabetes Research
Meals on Wheels
Lung Association
Arthritis Foundation
and this one was my favorite:
"at Tom's request, in lieu of flowers, just thank a veteran for his service"
Here's what I think about all of this; even in people's greatest time of sadness and grief they are still kind enough to consider how their loss can make a positive impact on someone in the future. Doesn't that speak volumes about the heart of man?
This is my challenge to you, faithful readers. Think about what your "in lieu of flowers" might be. You might be all "hey, what about the poor florists!" or "I do love some flowers at a funeral". And I do agree that a funeral with absolutely no flowers would be sad, indeed. But think about this. What would you want part of your legacy to be?
This isn't about me but about my Gramma. My Gramma was a Funeral Junkie. She loved her a good funeral. And she made it very clear that when she died, she wanted a Proper Send-off or she would come back and haunt us. And a Proper Send-off meant a viewing, a Rosary, a Mass, music, multiple Carmelite representatives and most important of all, flowers and lots of them. EVERYONE was aware of this. Or, almost everyone.
ReplyDeleteMy dad's wife volunteered to handle Gramma's obituary and she didn't let us see it before it was submitted. And when the obit appeared in the newspaper, we were horrified to read, "The family requests donations to the Acme Home for Unwed Cats in lieu of flowers."
It could have gotten ugly but luckily for my dad's wife, everyone knew what was Proper and sent tons of massive floral tributes.
Gramma got her Proper Send-off including the dozen priests and nuns in full habit. It was a great funeral, if I do say so myself.
She still came back and haunted us but not for that reason.
Hungry Kids International? I'm thinking that didn't relate to cause of death ;) interesting...
ReplyDeleteOk Kelly you've got to tell us about the haunting!
ReplyDeleteWhen my mom passed two months ago, I wrote the obit and requested that a donation be made to the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge in our nearest town because she and I had stayed there while she had treatment, or the animal charity of the donor's choosing. And you know what-NO one made any donations there were so many flowers and since I had mama cremated and no burial site I ran around like mad having to place flowers on other deceased relatives graves. A real pain in the tuchas! ;-)
In lieu of flowers, perform an act of kindess.
ReplyDelete